Absolute Beginners
by Secret Agent Smut Girl
Summary: They may be old souls, but they get to start again.
1. Chapter 1

**Title: **Absolute Beginners

**Author:** SecretAgentSmutGirl

**Summary: **They may be old souls, but they get to start again.

**Disclaimer:** I don't even own the computer this was typed on yet.

ooo

It started with an electrical shock- her sixth sense picking up danger.

It was not unusual for Rei to size up dangers in the world around her, guardian first and foremost, but it had been a long time since the feeling of danger pertained to her own personal safety instead of that of the princess. It was almost novel, the experience of reflexive fear before she reasserted her own ability in her mind.

What was laughable was that it was occurring in a Starbucks.

Violet eyes scanned the coffee shop under guise of perusing the menu. Nonchalant, calm, letting her senses roam over the collected souls without any outward sign. She ordered a double espresso, dismissing the waiter as she removed her agenda book from her shoulder bag. Calmly, methodically.

Left hand corner of the room, furthest table from her visual range, pressed up against the glass of the store front.

She opened the book to her days schedule, content to use her inner eye to glean initial information. The danger was motionless. It was a male, overtly so, and the energy around him told her that he was on a laptop. She smirked to herself- her predator was probably just another Armani clad junior leaguer with a couple of date rape charges from his college days.

Pushing the length of her dark hair behind her ear, she spared her quarry a glance and froze before she could look away- snared, caught off guard. Her breath caught as his stormy gaze matched hers evenly, daring her to break the connection first, to admit the game. Inside her chest, her heart clenched.

Jadeite.

Once it responded, her mind went running at double speed, calculating escape routes along with contingency plans. It had been foolish not to withdraw at the first crawling sensation of danger, it had been prideful and arrogant but she knew her failings well enough. At least, she mused, she'd been right about the Armani. He'd always been so vain.

"Double espresso." The painfully young waiter intoned, startling her as he slid her mug securely in from the edge of the table. She stared at the boy wide eyed, shocked by his voice so close, before smiling and nodding her acceptance of her order. It wouldn't do to lose her composure.

Predictably, when she looked back to the front of the shop, the man was gone.

The second time she was more prepared.

After completing her weekly lunch with the Senator she'd declined to take the car back in lieu of walking back through the shopping district, a guilty pleasure to window shop but the spring weather begged to be enjoyed. Her pace was leisurely, set partly by the weather and partly by the delicate heeled sandals she wore. So she meandered, enjoying the breeze that slid her skirt softly around her calves.

It was too early for the crush of schoolgirls on the sidewalk, so she was able to browse unharmed amongst the crush of housewives and business men going about their day. She was leaning into the glass of Hermes to better see a display of scarves when she felt the familiar prickle of cold race up her spine.

Danger.

His reflection joined hers on the glass, tall and lean with hands cavalierly buried in his pockets but no less dangerous for the posture. She couldn't stop herself from smirking at the studied casualness, tilting her head to look up into his eyes. "How long have you been following me?"

The sun gave his golden hair an ironic halo, but his smirk complimented her own. "Sweetheart, I've been following you since you decided to give chase."

"Are you trying to catch me, or to kill me?" She cocked an eyebrow in challenge. "Is this time going to be different than the last time?"

"This time, well I hadn't given it much thought." He laughed, casting his eyes down the length of her before settling back on her eyes. "I don't imagine there will ever be a time when we won't want to kill each other, but my intentions are no more malicious than that. I needed to see you."

"How did you find me?"

"Mamoru."

In the glass the reflections of the busy sidewalk were a frantic counterpoint to their frozen postures. Turning away from the glass Rei walked to the next part of the display, waiting for him to fall into step with her, which he did easily. Naturally. They'd strolled like this a thousand times before.

"I take it your sudden reappearance means that something is going to happen," she started, conversationally. "We've been on the edge of something, the fire has been cryptic."

"Setsuna inferred the logic of our reawakening, that's all I've been told," he admitted with a wry grin, making Rei laugh and remark, "I'm sure that's all she gave away. Are the others...?"

"Not when I left, but soon. I suppose they figured I'd need a head start on getting back into your favor."

She considered this as they reached the corner, where the street sign said not to walk. Flagging down a cab, she turned to him and smiled. "We'll have to work on that. Meet me for dinner tomorrow night, pick me up at 8."

He didn't answer before she climbed into the car, but they both knew he'd be there.

Dinner was leisurely affair. He sent lilies with the car to pick her up and she wore a backless red dress. He spoke about modern technology with wonder and she kept her cards close to her chest. The wine flowed, starting with a Cabernet and ending with a Pinot Noir that tasted like cherries. In the backseat of the car on the way to bring her home, he found that she tasted like the dark chocolate torte and that that her skin smelled of warm amber.

He walked her to her front door with true gallantry. He kissed her cheek lingeringly and turned to leave, but was stopped by the pull of her small hand on his own. There was question in his eyes when he looked at her, she didn't speak but pulled him close and pressed her body against him.

When she spoke her voice was soft, painfully soft and earnest and she said something he never thought to hear. "Stay with me tonight."

He hesitated, still holding her close. He was at a loss but she was pure fire against him, consuming, the bare skin of her back nearly burned his palms. "Princess..."

Violet eyes snared him, hypnotized him into relaxing against her. He had to remember that had been another time, another life for them. Splaying her hands across his chest, she gazed up into his eyes. "This time we will be lovers in truth."

Leaning forward, he rested his forehead against hers and whispered, "This isn't why I came back to you."

"That's why I know it's right."

When she unlocked the door and entered her flat, he did what he always did.

He followed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: **Absolute Beginners

**Author:** SecretAgentSmutGirl

**Summary: **They may be old souls, but they get to start again.

**Disclaimer:** I don't even own the computer this was typed on yet.

ooo

In dreams she could feel the dagger piercing flesh, thrusting up between her ribs with such icy precision that there had been no other endgame but death. Once before she'd had the dream, when Galaxia had tapped into their deepest fears.

What Rei Hino feared most was remembering.

She remembered the look in his eyes then, that impersonal, alien gaze that flashed with contempt as she staggered away from him. A strangers gaze, an enemy's gaze.

A lifetime removed from that battle and she could smell the iron in the air and feel the warmth of her blood as it flowed out of her body, in rhythm with her stuttering heart. That blood had been the only warmth then. The moon had gone cold and all she could see was the ice in his eyes. All she could feel that same ice ice slick through her veins, as he put the steel into her back.

When she straightened her spine, drawing her arms back in her last action she felt removed from herself. Already dead, more spirit than flesh. Then it was over, all over, when she ended it all with cold fire.

Cold.

Rei woke with gooseflesh raised across her bare back. The blanket had been pulled away and the lazy overhead fan sent shivers up her spine with each turn. Slowly her heart rate receded, evened and steadied until she could think again.

Breath again.

Next to her Jadeite slept soundly, his profile highlighted by the meager morning light that slanted in through the blinds. He was three blankets deep, covetous of all the warmth and the reason she'd woken so chilled. Traitorously her thoughts snagged on the irony that he had also been the reason she'd had the nightmare, lived the nightmare.

Involuntarily a chill shot through her. She recalled that he'd been imprisoned in ice after his reawakening under Metallias spell, not even given the comfort of death. Frozen. It seemed cold would always be there, wedged between them. Ready to haunt them and undo them.

Sliding out of bed she was unsteady on her feet and sore in all the right places. The night before had been a true meeting of souls, meeting of warm flesh sanctified by the fire of a hundred candles. Purified by fire, she couldn't help the satisfied smile that tugged at her lips.

With some effort she found her discarded robe and slid it on to cover her nakedness from the cruel air. She was tying the sash when he spoke, startling her, his voice husky with sleep, "Why are you always running away from me?"

Rei let out the breath she'd been holding, relaxing at the sound of his voice. She leaned down and ghosted a kiss across his brow, "How else can I get you to chase me?"

Jadeite chuckled, reaching out to pull her back down into the bed but she resisted. "It took me literally forever to get you here, can't you just let me bask in the triumph for a minute?"

"Triumph?" That earned him a dark look. She squared her shoulders and glowered down at him, "I believe I was the one who seduce you."

"You're right." That laugh again, heavy and smoldering like am ember. "You're always right, firebird."

"I need to go to the fire and get some answers. There's something in the air."

There was tension in the air, and not just between the two of them with the specter of memory that her dream had awakened. It blanketed the city, forming a pit of dread in her stomach and alarm in her mind. She had to confer with the fire, she had to make sure her Princess would be safe. It was always about duty.

Jadeite ignored her troubled look as he rose from the bed, unashamed in his nakedness. Distraction, that's what he was, drawing her gaze to the play of muscles across his back as he stretched and headed towards the bathroom. She blinked at the sound of the shower turning on, refocusing on the doorway he'd disappeared through.

Pressing the heels of her hands to her eyes she refocused. She had to go to the fire.

ooo

Mamoru Chiba didn't know what brought him to the steps of the Hikawa Jinja, but looking up at the familiar stairs he realized it was a fools errand to question such things. Ten days ago he'd entered his flat to find Setsuna, the guardian of time, in full regalia within and with prophecy to impart. He'd seen the signs, felt the wrongness in the air for months but the appearance of the most elusive Senshi had cemented his worry.

This time they would not be enough. Setsuna had stilled him without a word, just a command from those wine red eyes. In her hands she had the mahogany box that contained the crystal manifestations of his traitorous Shittenou, something that had been buried in his closet under old school books and cram guides for years. Something that he had wanted to forget. He should of know better.

Time wouldn't forget.

All she'd said, while pressing the box into his hands, was to "heed the omens".

Would his life always be out of his control?

"Damn the omens," he muttered, drawing strange glances from a duo of passing school girls clad in Juuban uniform. Mamoru raked his fingers through his inky dark hair and started on the stairs upward, with purpose. He knew it was only a matter of time before he would have to face Rei, or she would find him, and he wanted control over this meeting.

Two days after Setsunas visit he received a page from the hospital during dinner out with Usagi for her birthday. She'd pouted and teased him about sharing him with so many people, but had sent him off with understanding and he'd promised to make it up to her. She was always so understanding, they'd come so far from the children they had been.

The sight of the patient, the amnesiac who had been struck by a car on a crosswalk just a block from his apartment stopped him short. Jadeite, the most stubborn and unpredictable of the Shittenou. The first Endymion would turn to for plotting, when Kunzite would be too rigid or Nephrite too abstract. The prideful, hotheaded General.

The traitor.

No one had remembered paging him to the ER, just as no one remembered admitting the patient. He'd attended to the case without question, and when Jadeite woke he overcame his reservations and explained everything that had happened. He'd been unprepared to see the fair haired man weep and struggle to bow before him in abject shame.

They were literally a million years from the Silver Millennium and he liked to think they had been different people then.

Mamoru had no reservation about sending the man to acclimate to the new world they lived in, just as he had no doubt that Jadeite would gravitate to Rei. He always had in the past. Somehow today his feet had brought him past his intended destination downtown out towards the blossom lined streets of the Temple.

At the top of the stairs he stopped, momentarily taken back by how long it had been since he'd been to the sacred place. Had things really been peaceful for that long? On paper it had been three years since Galaxia but the wounds were still fresh.

He went through the motions of paying his respects at the temple before seeking out its Priestess, he knew she'd be in front of the sacred fire. Phobos and Deimos greeted him at the door with a fluttering of midnight wings, but gave him no obstacle to entering. They were ominously quiet.

The door slid open without a sound. Rei knew he was there, he could see it in the set of her shoulders. For moment he entertained the idea of turning and leaving without explanation, but it was already too late. She turned from the blazing fire, given a halo by the red-gold glow, without a flicker of expression.

When she spoke it stopped him short. "This is all your fault, Endymion. Everything is going to be your fault."


End file.
